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“Belgium has been dragging its feet for 18 months now on the repatriation of its citizens detained in Syria,” Humanist parliamentarian George Dallemagne said on Monday, describing this as “a quadruple mistake”.
“By dithering, the Government is giving the impression that it places greater confidence in Kurdish justice than in our justice system to protect us, try criminals and neutralise them, whereas Syrian Kurdistan is totally incapable of doing so,” Dallemagne said.
“It is also taking the risk of seeing these nationals freed by the Kurds, or escape, and disappear, while minors and women who may not have been radicalised or who do not represent a threat become one after coming into contact with other detainees,” he added.
“The Government is leaving very young minors who require protective measures in these camps, and is trying to shunt this problem off cheaply onto the Kurds, whom we are abandoning whereas they have lost thousands of fighters in the fight against ISIS,” Dallemagne noted.
He suggested that a special European jurisdiction could be created to provide “effective and coordinated legal processing.”
Oscar Schneider
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